Elsewhere - Hall

Brooklyn, NY

$15 / $17

This event is 16 and over

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Methyl Ethel is the uninhibited alt-pop project from Perth musician Jake Webb. The band started in 2013, as an outlet for the reverb soaked home recordings Webb was working on whilst developing his ambient and textural guitar playing in a variety of local outfits. Methyl Ethel has since blossomed into one of the most critically revered and publicly embraced acts coming out of Western Australia in some time.

Built from the ground up in various bedrooms, friends' studios and quiet caverns over 2013, the exceptional EP diptych Guts and Teeth, which explore themes of anxiety, disillusionment and stasis, were released in quick succession. These intricate tapestries of melody, dripping with lush eccentricity, ascended through the ether and onto the airwaves, with Indie Shuffle, Happy, triple j, FBi Radio, 3RRR and RTRFM amongst others all taking note.

So far, 2015 has seen the band hone their sound, on debut LP Oh Inhuman Spectacle and its accompanying singles Twilight Driving and Rogues (awarded 2015 WAM Pop Song of the Year). Recorded in the same manner as its predecessors, Oh Inhuman Spectacle masterfully blends pop and esotericism to create an undeniable piece of work, which has landed at the top of many mid-year album lists and been championed by supporters new and old.

After a year of relentless touring, sharing stages with the likes of San Cisco, Holy Holy, Sunbeam Sound Machine and Courtney Barnett, Methyl Ethel are now a headliner in their own right. With their hometown album launch hitting capacity in a matter of minutes, and their Melbourne date selling out weeks in advance, the excitement surrounding the act and their breathtaking live show is palpable. October will see the band take a break from working on the follow up to Oh Human Spectacle to head stateside for CMJ, with a busy Australian summer to follow.

TEEN’s second album, 2014’s The Way and Color, was a stunning creative breakthrough. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Teeny Lieberson’s voice is starkly highlighted, but the whole record is a conversation between her; Katherine Lieberson’s crafty, minimalist drumming; Boshra AlSaadi’s lithe, sinuous bass lines; and Lizzie Lieberson’s irresistible synth hooks. Now the group is back with its strongest release to date: the third full-length of their discography, Love Yes.

Born out of a creative process that included a dismal winter workshopping in Woodstock, a writing renaissance for lead-singer Teeny Lieberson in Kentucky, and a triumphant return to home in Nova Scotia to record, Love Yes is a lush, bold new creation that builds upon the group’s previous efforts and takes off.

On the album cover, the quartet is bejeweled in crystals and bathed in Venusian red. This red is the color of vitality and pulsing life—unmistakable traits of Love Yes. It is the iconic red of Dorothy’s slippers and Eve’s apple—potent with society’s tales and notions of innocence lost. In Love Yes, something else more mysterious and tender is gained.

TEEN was founded in 2010 by lead-singer and multi-instrumentalist Teeny Lieberson (Here We Go Magic). She self-recorded and self-released the beguiling lo-fi Little Doods LP the following year, then formed a band that included sisters Katherine and Lizzie, and signed to Carpark for 2012’s In Limbo. Produced by Sonic Boom (Spectrum, Spacemen 3), In Limbo encompasses everything in between sprawling, ethereal ballads and trancey but kinetic pop. Rolling Stone listed its opening track “Better” as one of the “50 Best Songs of 2012.” The Carolina EP followed in 2013 and was even more varied and accomplished; the band was growing by breathtaking leaps and bounds. TEEN’s second full-length, The Way and Color, mixes the band’s melodic psych with the sound of post-millennial R&B. The LP has its share of darkness—fear, regret, and loss are all in the picture—but it’s always redeemed by the sheer soulfulness and powerful ingenuity of the music. The album is a reflection on the aggressive times we live in, one that often lacks selflessness. TEEN’s response is one that uplifts and brings a sense of happiness and joy. Love Yes continues this communication, this time exploring the disharmony and empowerment that both sexuality and spirituality can create within the modern woman’s psyche. Universal ideas of loyalty, pleasure, purity, power, aging, and love are confronted with a knowable specificity. There is a quality of wholesomeness, but also an edge—a kind of wise anger and electricity.